The past Winter Season was a dark season… for Studio Deen in any case. They came out with more series than any other series, and all of them were disappointing even despite my low expectations. I mean, I am a fan of them and all, but the reason for that is most definitely not their consistency!

I originally wanted to be a bit more generous with my rating for this series, but the more I thought about this show, the more I realized that it just doesn’t have anything redeemable. There’s no reason to watch this thing; everything it does has been done better a thousand times already. Dragon Crisis at heart is a boring cliche-fest that lacks any sort of ambition.

The structure of this series consists out of six two-episode arcs. This show somehow manages to do the impossible and become progressively worse with every successive arc. Seriously, just when you think that this show couldn’t get any worse, it manages to finds some way to prove you wrong until at the end, the creators just outright give up. Every arc is pretty much focused on adding someone to the lead guy’s harem. Yeah, that loses its charm really quickly.

Beyond that the writing is just outright stupid. This is the kind of show that was written by people who think that teenagers (its target audience) have the mental capacities of a lobotomized squirrel. Characters act solely on what’s convenient to the plot and make the most bizarre leaps in logic at times. Any attempts of this show to become genuine is overshadowed by their complete stupidity. Add that to a plot that is just chockful of plot evices, deus ex machinas and inconsequential techno-babble that too make no sense whatsoever. All of that really is not helped by a really annoying cast of cliches and stereotypes that are supposed to be characters in which hardly anyonee stands out.

One of the big eslling points of Dragon Crisis looked to be its animation, with Masashi Ishihama (the guy behind the gorgeously animated Read or Die and Welcome to the Space Show) as its animation director. But even factoring in the lower budget that this series received, the animation is surprisingly bland: it’s not used well, the characters are all carbon copies of each other with just different hairstyles and despite a relatively high framerate for Studio Deen’s standards, none of the visuals stand out as particularly impressive.

The reason why I still consider a series like Fractale to be good, despite the way in which it too has a lot of flaws, is because it still is a very enjoyable adventure. There is absolutely nothing enjoyable about Dragon Crisis. None of the drama works, its stories are completely void of any creativity, its characters are just there to get in the lead guy’s pants and it just had no intention of trying to do anything even remotely interesting.

Thats the big problem with Studio Deen: they’ve been losing their talent left and right and just aren’t trying hard enough most of the time. They need some incentive: something to really get them to produce the really good stuff again, because this… this just is a complete waste.

Storytelling:

4/10 – Completely unambitious, doesn’t know what it wants to do and therefore is full of deus ex machina and plot induced stupidity.

Characters:

5/10 – None stands out. It’s just one big harem with all the cliches in place.

Production-Values:

8/10 – Not as good as you’d expect, but doesn’t cause this show to get any worse than what it already is.

Setting:

5/10 – This show looks like it adctually has a complex background with its dragons and rare artifacts, but in the end it’s nothing but mere cliches and techno-babble.

I am having a Deja Vu: I felt the same way with Ookami Kakushi. Despite how much I wanted to like it, the show was some pretty bad job. Same story here. This Dragon Crisis is not that bad as I really saw worse stuff, but there is anything that stands out of mediocrity. It’s not as bad as Korezombie to be called at least ‘peculiar’ and It didn’t turn to the right direction such as Fractale did not to be a complete disaster at the last moment. So what? Shrug I’m just going to forget this even existed pretty soon anyway…

man I totally agree what a take the mickey and waste of my time. Had all this possible richness but just stuck with cliches the opening is good and had some solid animation but was just so weak especially the ending. Wonder if the light novels are better they usually are.

Then again, I dropped it the instant I saw “Blue Dragon” ticking a box on the ‘List of Magic Elements’ the show was fast running out of, alongside my patience. That Childhood Friend character was beyond annoying too – naturally we just end up seeing more of here ffs.

It did have some potential, really. Even mass produced parts can be made into something exceptional, and Deen didn’t do this for whatever reason – and honestly, they could have done their own thing and I find it hard to believe anybody would care.

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AidanAK47

(Tuesday, Mar 31. 2015 02:34 PM)

Hmmm, my current laptop doesn’t have anything major wrong with it and can last a few months. Like you said it might be good to wait.
Know any good site that will help me keep an eye on things on new laptop affairs? Or else just let me know if a impressive beast comes out.

AidanAK47

(Tuesday, Mar 31. 2015 02:31 PM)

I was aware that this thing might be heavy but weight isn’t really an issue. Nor is using it around other people as I had no intention of doing so. I need the portabilty in order to keep it on hand when going to and from my parents and my house. Highly doubt I would need it in a place with a lot of people. Chances are I would just chat with people instead or play a DS.
I figured it would be outdated by years end. Really I just need a laptop that will last me a good few years.

Raggers

(Tuesday, Mar 31. 2015 02:28 PM)

I really need to go now but I can look at this stuff in more detail later. Just be aware that 2015/2016 will see some major changes to hardware and software – DX12 will need next-gen cards for full support most likely, VR will mean they are optimised for low-latency…
There is a lot of new stuff coming, and you will miss out if you buy now.

Raggers

(Tuesday, Mar 31. 2015 02:24 PM)

I don’t know how long your current solution will last, but I expect there to be serious developments in the next product cycle or two. GPUs will (finally) shrink to the next node, bringing huge power savings and boosting performance significantly. Skylake will come out with some very interesting features, and 3D memory should be highly beneficial for performance.

Raggers

(Tuesday, Mar 31. 2015 02:20 PM)

Price isn’t really a concern with your budget, but a TOTL gaming laptop has major compromises. I don’t really feel comfortable helping unless you are aware of this – you will unlikely be able to use it in any circumstances where there are other people nearby unless they are all using headphones, you’ll need headphones, and it’ll be very bulky and heavy.

AidanAK47

(Tuesday, Mar 31. 2015 02:16 PM)

Pretty much anything on steam.

AidanAK47

(Tuesday, Mar 31. 2015 02:16 PM)

Well go ahead, if price was not a factor what should I go for?

Raggers

(Tuesday, Mar 31. 2015 02:15 PM)

What kind of games are we talking about?

Raggers

(Tuesday, Mar 31. 2015 02:15 PM)

Oh, ninja’d.

AidanAK47

(Tuesday, Mar 31. 2015 02:14 PM)

About 2700 euro is the highest I can go at the moment. Though if I wait another month I can go beyond 3000.

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